I'm going to make a really big and pompous claim here... and I'm going to do it for a very noble reason. My hope is to lure some other organist (or supporter of him or her) out of the wood work and try to prove me wrong... dead wrong.

My claim is that I'm probably one of the last and possibly one of the best living practitioners of the lost art of the FULL SWING BLOCK CHORD SOLO, the legacy of a method pioneered by the likes of such greats as Milt Buckner, Doc Bagby and Wild Bill Davis. - - Now just in case despite being a heavy and avid B-3 player/fan/collector you're still in the dark about this great style, let me hip you to it : Most of the early "pre modern" Hammond Organists were masters of this style, however it was Wild Bill Davis who would frame it in a way that really created the language of the Modern Jazz organ... that being using the pedals moreso for auxillary purposes, swinging a realistic sounding "double bass" style bass line in the left hand (as opposed to mere oom-pa-pa theatre organ rhythm) and still playing full block chord harmonizations in the right hand. Wild Bill Davis in essence was the first dedicated swinging Jazz organist.

THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE APPROACH

The idea behind this great style of playing, as pioneered by the likes of Wild Bill and Marlowe Morris was to approach the Hammond Organ as a powerful one man Big Band. Remember, this was in the era when Count Basie was the epitome of cool...and Wild Bill, having had experience writing one of the most popular arrangements in the entire Basie book (The Count's legendary 'one mo' time' version of April in Paris) was definitely the man to do it. (Fans of Jump R & B might also want to know that Wild Bill started out as a member of Louis Jordan's Tympany 5, as did Bill Doggett and Jackie Davis - - all three who switched to the Hammond long before it came in vogue and along with Milt Buckner, who was with Lionel Hampton's band, helped forge its place in the 20th century Jazz idiom.)

Ah, but you're wondering, "What about Jimmy Smith ?" Well Wild Bill started experimenting on the Hammond in the Late '40s, but the recording industry was slow to catch up with his aptly described "Wild" sound... finally about a year after Wild Bill had his SMASH RUN at BIRDLAND and also recorded his breakthrough LIVE AT BIRDLAND album, Jimmy Smith who'd definitely been digging the sound of such players, but prior was really a modern Jazz pianist came along. Jimmy Smith's claim to fame was altering this concept to fit in with the trends of modern Jazz which were away from Big Band style arranging and more towards small ensemble playing... to this extent Smith's concept of the organ was more horn like and pianistic... Though definitely a major accomplishment (as the Hammond Organ at the time was heading in the direction of the big bands... meaning into oblivion and for sure would have had he not broken through) the rise of the JOS school saved and popularized was the Jazz Organ in general, but lost was a very rich and complex harmonic language that even many of today's top Jazz arranger's simply don't understand how to speak let alone the uncountable plethora of players who have yet to be exposed to the style. Exceptions to the rule were a handfull of Jimmy Smith disciples who combined the two schools... of note, Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott and Johnny Hammond Smith.

So, as for the lost art of the Block Chord solo, if you want to hear it, there are two (frustratingly out of print) albums I highly recommend : WILD BILL DAVIS : LIVE AT BIRLDAND (sometimes available on CD) and Johnny Hodges' LIVE IN ATLANTIC CITY (asin B0000206A6). Although a number of recordings of him done in Europe can be found over the net, most lack the fire of his earlier years... and for this reason I highly recommend trying to hunt down vinyl copies of LIVE AT COUNT BASIE'S, MIDNIGHT TO DAWN and a plethora of other recordings like BROADWAY, FRANTIC FREE AND FUNKY and other recordings (often on the EVEREST label.) (And if you don't have a turn table, save up the $80.00 and get one !) - - Also worth checking out for starters (but painfully hard to find) : Marlowe Morris DO THE THING (long out of print LP) and (available on CD but a bit hard to find) BATTLE OF THE ORGANS which features a number of cuts from Doc Bagby and Luis Rivera. (Just to be evil, may I suggest tuning in to my friend Pete Fallico's radio show THE DOODLIN' LOUNGE and making him promise to spin some of this for you, which I know he has in his collection, along with virtually just about every Jazz organ album worth listening to !)

Now as for me, here are few MP3s of me "doing the thing" at my club in Tokyo...

I'm Confessin' (solo)

PJ's Blues <-- technical note : when you take a block chord solo, you usually want to have the Leslie on fast, strong control of the expression pedal (otherwise the chords will sound too "direct" and "stabby"), adequate (often ample reverb) and in some cases some of the "older" vibrato settings will sound much better than the more popular "C" settings.

Night Train <-- In the middle of the solo I suddenly switch over to actually playing the pedals and chording in my LH as well as soloing in my right. On this type of grindy blues, the pedals definitely can work ! (This is a different version of Night Train, our Friday Session's closing theme that's up in the multi-media gallery.)

Finally, you can head over to my multi-media gallery and check out plenty of other examples, including me doing the Block Chord thing in a more modern context. (My most recent CD has some block chord stuff, but I actually got WAY more into it after the session when I finally realized that blocking was my real strength as a player !)

Now in case you're wondering how to actually learn to block... well, that that's one SECRET I ain't giving up THAT EASY, but I will give you a few hints. 1) Don't confuse it with so called "SQUABBLING" (Jimmy Smith's famous Mack the Knife sound) and don't confuse it with George Shearing's 4 Way Close... in fact its something a bit more complicated that SQUABBLING but actually a lot simpler than 4 Way Close. 2) The important thing is this... forget your modes and those silly modal fourth "So What" style keyboard voicings : Instead know your Diatonic 7th Block Chords and block chords from the bottom up (Root, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Eleventh, Thirteenth), look for simple keys, learn your diminished chords too... and always think 1 3 5 6... with your thumb and pinky grabbing the melody note an octave apart and DON'T BE AFRAID TO PLAY YOUR THIRDS AND FIFTHS no matter what you've been taught about modern keyboardists being supposed to avoid the fifth. Its bull ! 3) finally,two of the easiest tunes in the world to learn to block on (besides Blues in F) include CUTE and SATIN DOLL in C (or any tunes without a lot of sharps and flats). I'll Remember April is another one of my favorite BLOCK FRIENDLY tunes, though it can be quite challenging for many players because the form is so long.

Now up to the challenge ??? Been working on it ??? Started working on it and have been doing it long before I was born (10/02/71) Let me know ! I'd love to hear from you !

Eddie Landsberg

Tokyo, 2005

www.eddielandsberg.com